The Real Deal #9

Welcome to the Real Deal the climate-newbie newsletter for newbies in climate.

We’re back from a small Thanksgiving break and looking forward to a hard push to the end of the year. Basically, with everything going on last week, we had to pick our spots, and we made the decision to hold off on sending the newsletter.

So now what are we doing?

• Exercising and counting calories? ✅ 

• Burning the midnight oil? ✅ 

• Taking a break? ❌ 

There’s too much to do.

SPOILER: There’s a poll for you to answer in this issue, near the bottom! Would love to hear back!

This week we’re going to try to give you a background of something we hadn’t even heard of at “getreal central” a year ago… “Conference of Parties 29,” or COP29, the annual meeting the UN holds to discuss, decide and - hopefully - agree on goals and milestones for reducing emissions.

The history of COP is long, complicated, and disappointing. But like any big hairy problem worth solving, nothing happens overnight.

Researching the history of COP across different websites (official ones and the UN’s - the official record keeper and owner of COP) is like reading an epic novel, like Gone With the Wind or A Tale of Two Cities.

Would you like crying? There’s plenty. Big wins that later feel like losses? Everywhere. International intrigue? Mmm hmm! Anger? Duck and cover.

After this year’s meeting, the only ones who don’t seem disappointed are the countries who don’t really attend or do much. Like Russia, who ships natural gas to any and every country it can. Russia benefits from unprogressive agreements, and wins when no agreements are reached. This was listed as one of the major takeaways of this year’s conference.

(Trivia: What country produces the most natural gas? Answer at the bottom.)

(Hint - it ain’t Russia.)

We have stated repeatedly in this space that we will not get political. This newsletter is written by Americans, and if you’re not aware — a major election just took place here. It can’t be omitted, so we just want to note that this has broad implications for the geopolitical landscape of climate and energy.

The reason is that, as we have been explaining, the economy of clean energy and climate is largely about decisions. Remember the Brooklyn Bridge? I’m still working my way through this book - but the main takeaway so far has been that any massive undertaking, no matter how clearly needed, still contends with politicians, citizens, and business people who all have different answers to the question, “What’s in it for me?”

How can decisions even be made when there are so many competing interests?

Well, at COP, the highest priority is

Carbon Emissions Reduction. 

There is no holier grail than an agreement to reduce carbon emissions at COP. Also, as we’ve discussed over the course of the brief life of this [GROWING!] newsletter, focusing on reducing emissions…

1. …requires considering short term conflicting interests over long-term shared ones,

2. …can’t be done by ONLY moving money around to small developing nations that already don’t emit much, and

3. …require humans to behave differently when everyone is just trying to get through each day getting to work, watching a movie, eating or acquiring food and water. Or writing newsletters.

The issues here are deeply complex. Geopolitical issues always are complex by definition, but what we’re doing by throwing all this money at developing nations, so that they can build out climate-friendly infrastructure, is forgoing responsibilities to fix our own issues (“our" being “we” - developed nations).

We at getreal.earth are not saying that developing nations don’t deserve help. They do. The issue is that the largest economies in the world are also the largest producers of carbon. Why?

Because oil companies know we’re addicted to burning liquids. Coming out of COP29, people with high expectations came away very angry.

Case in point:

More trivia: Did you know that 90% of Azerbaijan’s export revenue comes from oil and gas extraction?

Remember what I told you about greenwashing a few weeks ago?

Not to belabor the point but…

The premiere climate conference is held in a country whose export revenue is 90% carbon-based fuel, attended by people who burned jet fuel to get there and back? And they’re talking about reducing carbon emissions, and the HOST COUNTRY is sitting at the room, glancing at their watches, know that they’re flaring oil and gas facilities within miles of the conference? We’re expecting them to vote against their own interests? and everyone comes away angry?

🤣 

There’s a word for this, but I’m trying to keep the newsletter Rated PG, at least for now.

For those of you who are kind enough to read this, the reason that climate is thought of as an unsolvable problem for those who believe it as well as those who don’t, this is what is the most frustrating aspect of it. We are a world drunk on oil.

And China of aaaaalllllll nations is beating the world at the game of obtaining energy independence that is carbon neutral (and maybe someday, carbon FREE).

We have had some great discussions in the last couple weeks about the product we’ll be rolling out.

This is a lot more fun than reporting on COP.

We are creating this platform for action-based connection (remember the motto - Awareness to Action), and bring people to a virtual “table” where they not only talk and discuss, but all the tools they need to collaborate and accomplish big things are provided.

We’ve reached some decision points we want to get past and we felt like some readers may be interested in a focus group of sorts. More details to follow, but please see below: Click on an option and we’ll see if we have enough from our audience to try something.

Please don’t be shy about voting - we’re only gaging interest, not seeking commitments. This will help us build out what we’re doing a lot!

As always, thanks for reading! We’ll be tackling that grid discussion in the coming weeks and I’ll be reporting to you on an interview Todd Crawford, a meteorologist at Atmospheric G2. I’m hoping to talk to him about the Atlantic Overturning Meridional Current (AMOC) - a key ocean current that keeps the Atlantic ocean cool and healthy. There is evidence that it may be collapsing… lots to say about this.

Thanks and please keep the referrals coming!

Trivia Answer: The US is now the world leader in natural gas exports, partially due to sanctions against Russia imposed after the war with Croatia. Go figure.